Potty training

With Babalu and Rookie we didn't push potty training. We thought it would be easier on everyone to just follow the lead of the child in question and it worked great. Babalu was fully trained by 3.5 and Rookie by 2.5 (Rookie wanted to be like Big Bro and Daddy!).

Snuggle Puppy is throwing us for a bit of a loop. We have been reading potty books but without any expectations of potty use. Until his doctor said that he was going to keep getting rashes and spots in his diaper area until he was trained because his skin was reacting to his urine. His skin has always been sensitive. And his urine is extra stinky. He drinks plenty of water so we are guessing that the smell is from holding it for so long. Clearly he is ready for using the potty.

So with that in mind we are going to try to be proactive about the whole thing. So here are our planned steps.

• Only padded underwear at home (sold as "training pants" by Gerber and the house brand at Babies R Us. Not the least bit waterproof but don't make a huge mess when peed in. Also my favorite padded underwear that actually contain mess really well are available by a company called Cloth Indulgence. Plus their prints are SUPER adorable).
• Beginning to stock up on waterproof training pants. I am planning to try the Snap-ez stuffable trainers (we used them for the older boys but they have changed their products so I'm not sure if I will still like them), the GroVia My Choice Trainers and Flip Potty Trainers. We would clearly put these on him when we leave the house.
• Use the potty on a schedule to get him started. This morning after our "good morning" and hugs I took off his diaper and it was totally dry. Same thing with yesterday. I put him on the potty and after 10 or 20 minutes he went. He didn't let it all go but it was a start. And about half an hour later let the rest of it go in his high chair. 
• Reward potty use with M&Ms. I would love to use juice as his potty reward since it has the benefit of filling his bladder and in our house would be a huge treat. But Snuggle Puppy doesn't like juice. 
• I'm considering buying him a potty training doll like Potty Scotty.

Hopefully we can stick with this plan and help our little Snuggle Puppy be a big boy like his brothers. 

Scouting

Until recently the Boy Scouts of America has been pretty anti-gay (they still don't allow gay adult leaders but at least they are allowing gay scouts. Not perfect but hopefully soon they will include everyone). As someone with a gay best friend that bothered me and I've been pretty vocal about that, probably to the point of looking like an ass. But as a Mom to 3 strapping young men I now see the value that organizations like the scouts have. They help young men build skills and character and connections. They will make friends and go on adventures.

So with that spirit in mind I signed my 2 older boys up. Babalu is now a Bear Cub Scout and Rookie is a little Tiger Cub Scout. Big Daddy and I will be sharing the responsibility of being the Den Leader for Rookie's Tiger Den and I'm looking forward to playing with all the little boys and helping them earn their Bobcat badge and Tiger badge. Babalu is pouring over his handbook and picking out the things he wants to do. They are boy super excited.

As for the anti-gay nature of BSA I will say this- our pack meets at a school so I am hoping that it never comes up. Also my boys are very offended by the thought that gay people don't have equal rights in our country so if anyone says anything they won't be swayed to think anything different.

Weekly Highlight {Week 3}

I should have posted this yesterday but I was busy. It happens :) Here are last week's highlights.

 Babalu talking to the zoo educator at the Stingray Bay. She said he actually gave her new bits of info. And she taught us that some sharks lay eggs like chickens do so in that boat are shark eggs that people can look at and hold. Unfortunately she had no idea who the eggs would taste scrambled :(

Rookie lost his first tooth! This is awesome since the adult tooth was half in behind it. He loves his shark tooth.

 Charlemagne has joined the Blue Man Group

We finally began our Magic School Bus Human Body kit. We made a stethoscope that actually worked. I could even hear poor Rookie's murmur.

Big Daddy trying to convince Snuggle Puppy to come into the pool. Not our pool, it was a function for work and was horrible for a few hours but then I started to talking to one of the other wives. Turns out her 4th grade son is as obsessed with the Titanic/Robert Ballard/Underwater Archaeology as my boys. We will be seeing them again for sure! In the end Snuggle Puppy didn't end up in the pool.

Curriculum 2013-2014

Here it is, our complete (I hope!) curriculum list-

The work they do together

R.E.A.L Science Odyssey Biology Level 1  The kids are loving all of the hands-on labs. Word to the wise- if you buy the ebook don't waste your money on the physical book, they are identical. For some reason I thought the ebook was just the workbook pages but it isn't. I'm not complaining, it was less I had to print out. We also supplement with The Magic School Bus Human Body Science Kit. We love the Magic School Bus books and the TV show as these kits are very exciting for us. I am hoping to work our way through all of the kits in the next couple of years. There are also a few weeks in our school year that we needed to find another program because the one we picked can be done in 24 weeks. We will be using Sonlight's Science B. We used this when Babalu was in first grade and it wasn't perfect but since we already own it and ran out of time when we used it the end will be fairly new. It also happens to be the section on the solar system that the boys are both interested in. It should be fun. Maybe... 

History Odyssey Middle Ages Level 1 Really loving this... We are looking forward to learning about a viking with the same name as Babalu and an Arthurian knight with the same name as Rookie.

Expedition Earth

Country Study Lapbook to help us make lapbooks for countries not included in Expedition Earth

Music Theory Haven't actually started it

Crafts from Preschool Corner that we have had for many years. We so these occasionally. Hopefully by the time Snuggle Puppy in 2nd or 3rd grade we will have gone through all of them.

I'm still searching for something artsy to do that is geared toward older kids but we might just to crafts and both free and guided painting/drawing (suggestions welcome!).

The work they do at their own grade level

Evan-Moor has the books we use for:

Daily Georgraphy
Daily 6-Trait Writing
Daily Spelling (Rookie doesn't do this)
Daily Language Review (Rookie also doesn't do this)
Daily Phonics

We also use Singapore for grammar and the Sentence to Paragraph book but we may stop soon. Babalu has a lot of work and I'm beginning to think it is too much and these are more review for him.

Here is the handwriting we use. It is very easy for the kids and doesn't take a lot of their time.

Rookie uses the Sonlight first grade Language Arts without the horrid "I Can Read" series. The stories are nonsense and can be hard to read, kind of like a tongue twister. We also skip anything religious because we aren't Christians.

Babalu uses Bring the Classics to Life readers and really enjoys them. We don't use them all of the time, maybe one a month, because they are short. Right now he is reading 20,000 Leagues under the Sea and is enjoying it. He finished The War of the Worlds in May and also enjoyed it.

For math we use Singapore and love it. We do skip the instructor's guides and find mental math sheets free from the internet because the instructor guides are very expensive compared to the textbook and workbook for each level. . We use the CA Standards editions. Erik is doing 3A and 3B and Tristan is doing 1A and 1B.

Classical Academic Press is where we find our Latin programs. Love these. I am excited to use the many of their other products when the boy's are older.

Since we have to do health we are using Horizon. Can't say that I'm thrilled with it but it is requited by the state we don't have too much of a choice.

Big decision for Bubbe

My Mom decided to quit smoking! She has tried in the past and has done well but always slid back. I'm proud of all of her attempts, it is not easy to quit. Babalu is also excited, he doesn't want his Bubbe to have polluted lungs. I hope she reads this so she knows how proud we all all of her.

{Weekly Highlights} Week 2

I would love to have put a picture of our awesome play date that lasted all day on Wednesday up here but I just can't. This week's highlight was the bad kind of highlight:

There is more damage under the plastic bumper thingie. The kids and I were coming home from the market on Thursday and we were rear ended on the freeway. The kids are fine which is the most important thing. I, on the other hand, had back and shoulder pain on Thursday afternoon so there was no school work. And on Friday I was dealing with some very minor whiplash also resulting in no schoolwork being done (I had a persistent neck and headache). Yesterday I woke up feeling fine so I think I'm good to go. And this coming week there will be a lot of school work (trying to fit 8 days of work into 5 days so we don't get behind, sounds nuts but it is doable).

{Weekly Highlights} Week 1

I decided that, since my poor Mommy doesn't get to see this stuff, to do a weekly highlight post. Since we just finished our second week I have to catch up so here are the highlights from week 1.

First are these- Rookie and Babalu each decorated a compass rose (available from Montessori print shop). Rookie only added the main directions since he is younger and Babalu added all of the directions. Poor Babalu, being in 3rd grade is hard.

Also there was the first playing of Catan Junior, the kid version of Settlers of Catan. They have both been wanting to play the Star Trek version but they are kind of young so I bought the kid version to start. And it was on clearance.

Overall it was a productive week.

One week down

Last week was our first week back at school. It went very well (aside from Babalu and his dawdling). We have a new daily schedule that is working great. So far here is what we are doing-

7am Boys up/brekkie/dress/morning chores

9-12 School (math, reading, workbooks)

12-1 Lunch/Recess (Rookie likes having recess instead of just a break)

1-330 School (read aloud, science, history/geography, music/art, Latin)

330-4 afternoon chores/clean up school stuff

4-5/530 TV Time

After TV time is dinner and then all the other usual evening stuff. We haven't started music/art or Latin yet, possibly this week but maybe next. When the boys are finished with the work for each block of time they are free until the next block of time. This means that Rookie has more free time than Babalu because he has less work. But Rookie is younger and still needs time to run around. On Wednesdays our morning school block is shifted to 930 because of Snuggle Puppy's speech therapy.

I'm working on a post with all of our curriculum and lists of read alouds. I am also thinking of having an overview of the week on Fridays so my Mom can see some of the highlights.

Camping with kids

This series is on hold for a few months because our camping trip was canceled due to a fire. It wasn't too near our campground but with allergies abound in our family I wasn't going to risk the bad air. It was the only chance we were going to have to camp until the spring because we have a family trip planned to Las Vegas. I am planning a post on going to Vegas with kids because it possible to visit there and have a good time with everyone.

Update on testing

I gave Babalu that darn math test and it didn't go so well. Many problems were worded differently than he had ever encountered and since I couldn't say "you know, it's when you do ____" he would not know exactly what to do. He had also never (not EVER) taken a math test. This year we will work more on passing standardized tests (Spectrum has a book for each grade level). I never bothered to test english because I know he can read above grade level and I'm sure it will just be a repeat of the math test so we will just work on it and take the 3rd grade test in the spring.